The FCC in the United States and other regulatory bodies in foreign jurisdictions have become more aggressive in setting performance standards for the radiation of EMI (Electro-Magnetic Interference). Digital equipment that operates according to clock signals, such as computers and their mass storage peripherals, have been identified as a source of EMI. Historically, a virtue of a clock signal was frequency stability; many data transmission systems have crystal controlled clocks. The combination of this frequency stability and the fast edges of the clock and its associated signals combine to produce pronounced collections of harmonics that can be the cause of EMI. For various reasons, it might not be technically or economically feasible to prevent the EMI through shielding. One of the techniques that has been developed to reduce EMI from such systems is to apply spread spectrum techniques to the clock system. SSC (Spread Spectrum Clocking) is a technique where the frequency of the clock signal is made to vary with time in some controlled manner.
For example, there is a Serial ATA standard for hard disc drives that specifies that the clock frequency of 75 MHZ (or 66 MHZ) vary with respect to time downwards and then back up again by one half percent, and at a rate that varies from 30 KHz to 33 KHz. That is, the clock frequency undergoes a varying degree of Frequency Modulation (FM). The idea is to distribute the harmonic content throughout a portion of the spectrum to reduce its power level at any particular frequency.
The FCC and the other regulatory bodies have certification requirements that require the manufacturer to measure the performance of the system to ensure that it meets the regulatory requirements. Items of interest in a system using SSC include the degree of power reduction at certain frequencies (e.g., the nominal clock frequency without FM) and a description of the modulating FM signal itself. Now it is not the case that there is no test equipment available to make such measurements; there is. But the circuitry that needs to be tested often resides on an IC (Integrated Circuit) die that will be tested on a system that is designed to probe, power up, stimulate and test die locations on undiced wafers. They are well suited to the task of ordinary functional testing of digital operation, but do not incorporate the kinds of capabilities found in the type of laboratory grade bench test equipment (flexible counters, fast digital oscilloscopes and full featured spectrum analyzers) that would ordinarily be used to make measurements related to SSC. What is more, it would be electrically troublesome, not to mention expensive, to connect such bench test equipment to a wafer or die. Yet it is most desirable in high volume production situations to test parts as early as possible, so as to avoid the expense of building assemblies with bad parts, since the cost of finding and replacing a bad part goes up rapidly as assembly fabrication proceeds. The parts we are interested in do get otherwise tested by a digital IC tester such as the Agilent 93000 SOC System (SOC stands for System On a Chip). However, depending upon how any particular such system is configured, the tester might not be equipped with the hardware needed to perform measurements of RF spectrum and FM characteristics. The Agilent 93000 SOC System can indeed be equipped with such measurement hardware, but to do so involves a certain expense. Such an expense might be viewed as a lamentable inefficiency if it were incurred only for the measurement of parameters related to SSC. It would desirable if there were a way that the measurement capabilities of the Agilent 93000 SOC System, and of other similar systems, could be easily and at a low cost, extended to measure the spectrum, deviation and rates of deviation for an SSC operated system. What to do?